Do people still use this forum? Or read it? Just in case...
Lots of stuff since I last updated. Getting pretty close!
I decided to move the engine back to help with the critical speed of the driveshaft and because they're too expensive to buy another and they can't shorten the driveshaft any shorter than 4" at a time! I ordered a carbon fiber one from Mark Williams and it's such a nice piece. It almost looks and feels like a toy, too! This driveshaft is 58" long, u-joint to u-joint, which is crazy long, to me.
I went with Precision 6766s. I remounted them to face forward and to be force fed through the bumper whenever I get more time later to do that modification. There looks like there is just enough room and height for a gravity drain, so I am gonna try it before moving to a pump. These snails should last me a while and let me figure out what the engine is capable of. I'm trying to find their/the engine's limit and also to set the car up for class racing, which requires single turbo. I figured I'd rather buy something that has a lot of power potential in case the car's just too non-competitive for class racing. I learned a lot about the lines and it's funny what manufacturers do. They all just try to save some money and you can tell. The silicone intakes.com PTFE hose is nice, but the hose end's IDs are about .050"-.075" smaller than a name brand's ID. It's really like a -8AN hose end on a -10AN hose. I used that on the oil return from the turbos and am leery of it.
I decided to add a secondary fuel pump instead of doing a cable drive pump. I won't be able to use methanol whenever i go class racing, but it wasn't in my current budget to buy a $2000 pump setup. The dual Magnafuel 4303 setup i have is about half that plus all the lines and fittings. Fuel lines are Fragola PTFE -10AN feeds and -8AN return. After spending an insane amount of money on lines and fittings, I come to find out I could have saved a lot by getting it from Racetronix. Even with my racer's discount. I still didn't get an answer from them about the ID of their -10AN hose ends as an example.
Got the headers all welded up and rainbows for days! Seems as though things shifted around on one side and the pipes are about 1/4" off of the mounts that I made. I can work with it but everything's so tightly fit that there isn't much room for error. The exhaust ports, spark plugs, and header bolts are very close to each other on this motor, making it hard to use a normal spark plug socket even with low profile header bolts. I had to grind some of the flange down and then pull out a ghetto lathe (drill on an angle grinder) on a spark plug socket to get that to work out. I also had some stainless steel, embossed header gaskets made off of the drawings from my header flanges. They're very nice!
Intake manifold and fuel system are all plumbed and ready to go, finally.
I decided to go with 2 A2W intercoolers, which are good for about 1000hp a piece, as long as I can keep them nice and cool. The tank is a Chiseled Performance custom piece with a 3700 GPH bilge pump. That thing empties the 6 gallon tank very quickly! I'm happy with him.
I tried to use the starter that came with engine parts whenever I bought it and it's dragging for some reason, so I'm thinking it's bad. There is a secondary 4 gauge ground from the starter to the battery, so that should be fine. I might either need to take it apart and see what's up, take it to a starter/alternator guy, or just buy a new one. The battery is new as well as everything else, so the system output is just fine.
I have a decent amount of stuff to do before the Shootout....
Install interior
finish engine wiring
complete bolting on turbo setup (easy)
cutting hood for downpipes and intake
Hood pins
seat belts
bleed front brakes
set ride height
test fuel system
test that all outputs work from ECM
Install EGT setup
Put in break-in oil, trans fluid, and rear end fluid
plumb and mount boosht controller
TUNE IT!!
I'm probably being optimistic about this year but we'll see! Pretty close to starting it.
